A man assaulted his wife after arriving home to find her semi-naked with a mutual friend hiding in the bedroom.

Dylan Hansen-Spure, 34, broke down the door with a sledgehammer at the family home in Bassett Street, Trallwn, and lashed out at the pair after walking in on the scene.

Ieuan Morris, prosecuting at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, said Hansen-Spure had come back home on the morning of January 27 to see his wife coming down the stairs.

She was not wearing any underwear and when he went into the front bedroom he discovered their friend, Gareth John Robinson, hiding inside.

Thinking that his wife had been cheating on him, he confronted the two and Mr Robinson tried to convince him nothing was going on.

But the court heard Mrs Hansen-Spure and Mr Robinson were now in a relationship and that she was seven months pregnant with his child.

Mr Morris said Hansen-Spure, now of Winslade Avenue, Tonyrefail, had punched his wife, Emma Hansen-Spure, repeatedly in the kitchen.

He then threw a television at Mr Robinson before going back downstairs but Mr Robinson barricaded himself in the front bedroom when Hansen-Spure appeared with a sledgehammer.

“He was absolutely petrified,” said Mr Morris.

“He said Mrs Hansen-Spure had told him in panic to hide until her husband had gone and he had reluctantly gone upstairs.

“He told him [the defendant] that nothing had been going on and they were just friends.”

Hansen-Spure hit him over the head causing a cut that needs stitches and told Mr Robinson: “Go to bed with your eyes open. If you don’t I will put a hammer through your head.”

Lucy Crowther, defending, said: “It may well be the defendant’s reaction to this was over the top but his suspicion was probably well placed. The prosecution agree that there was a degree of provocation.”

Hansen-Spure admitted assaulting his soon-to-be ex-wife, the mother of his two young children, occasioning her actual bodily harm and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Robinson, who suffered a suspected broken arm.

Judge Phillip Richards jailed Hansen-Spure for 15 months but suspended it for 18 months with supervision.

He told him: “This was an outrageous attack. Your anger took control of your common sense.”

Hansen-Spure will also have to complete an accredited programme and pay a £120 victim surcharge.